What Remains and the modern whodunit

What Remains maintained to its fourth and final part the appeal that I wrote about in my review of the first episode and David Threlfall continued to perform superbly in the role of the decent but emotionally bereft ex-cop Len Harper.

The claustrophobic shared house setting was brilliantl captured, and although the last ten minutes or so were pretty melodramatic in comparison to the subtle tension-building that had gone before, overall I very much enjoyed the story. While watching it, I was prompted to reflect on the strength of the whodunit as a narrative form, because despite its highly contemporary mood and subject matter, What Remains was a genuine whodunit, with added value in terms of characterisation and, above all, the compelling portrayal of how desperately lonely life can be in the heart of bustling metropolitan London.

Stripped of the moody and dark photography, the storyline was reminiscent of the Golden Age. Almost all the occupants of the shared house nursed dark secrets. Possible motives were lightly sketched (a slight plotting weakness, perhaps?) but almost everyone seemed capable of having murdered the luckless young woman whose body had been found in the attic two years after she was last seen - a disappearance to which hardly anyone paid attention. There was even a "least likely culprit" in the Christie tradition.

If analysed carefully, I'm not sure that - despite its superficially very "realistic" take on modern life - What Remains was much more plausible than many a Golden Age mystery. But on the whole,that didn't matter. It was good entertainment, and offered a story that will linger in my mind for quite a while. This is something that a good whodunit can do -whether it's a modern TV drama, such as Lewis or Vera or Broadchurch, or an older story,such as the better 'forgotten books' that I cover on Fridays. The combination of a mystery to solve, coupled with interesting people and a well-evoked setting has just as much appeal today as it did eighty years ago..

The Guilty - ITV review

The Guilty started on ITV last week, and a few days late, and on the recommendation of a friend, I've caught up with the first episode. As other reviews have noted, there are distinct similarities to that other ITV crime series Broadchurch, which ended its eight-week run not so long ago. One of the differences is that The Guilty is divided into just three parts.

The setting is suburbia, rather than a coastal resort, and the rather less striking backdrop is a limitation compared to Broadchurch, which made such atmospheric use of the seaside locale. Overall, though, I was struck by the thought that we are right in the middle of a rich vein of TV crime series. Broadchurch was terrific, and What Remains is keeping me  really gripped, with its assortment of odd characters living cheek by jowl in a spooky shared house. The Guilty is not quite in the same league, but very watchable.

Again, the central storyline involves a missing child, and the effect his disappearance (and, it turns out, murder) has on his family and his community. We see events from five years ago, when the boy went missing, alongside events in the present day, when his body is discovered. He comes from a seemingly happy family, but it becomes increasingly evident that all is not quite as it appears at first sight.

Tamsin Greig is the likeable cop leading the investigation, and already a few potential suspects have emerged. Like What Remains, though (and this is another difference from Broadchurch) there isn't so much focus on motives. It would be good to think that there's something more on offer than a study of a paedophiel, but we'll see. I'll definitely be watching episode two this evening.

What Remains - BBC TV review: episode one

What Remains started last night, and episode one was very watchable for (at least) three reasons. First, the script by Tony Basgallop explores the lonely bleakness of one aspect of London society, where a person can die and not be missed for a very long time. Apparently, a tragic real life case formed part of the inspiration for the story. In What Remains, the mummified remains of a woman called Melissa are discovered in the loft of the house where she lived. Nobody had seen her for ages, and everyone says they thought she had  moved out.

Second, the victim lived in a house divided into several flats,and a number of people living there are potential suspects. They include a dodgy teacher (well played by David Bamber) and two women whose relationship is falling apart. Really, the house offers a "closed community" familiar from many traditional whodunits,but the feel of this show is bleak and far from traditional.

A long time ago, I made regular visits to a shared house in London over the course of two or three years. The occupants rented their rooms, rather than owning separate flats,but What Remains did remind me strongly of that house and the eclectic community formed by its residents. I was very conscious at the time that the people who lived there were linked by nothing other than an address, and that tensions could rise between near-strangers just as they can rise between family members. I even thought that one day I might write a story with such a background....

The third strength of episode one was the performance of David Threlfall as Len, the cop who is about to retire when he is called out to look into Melissa's death. He too is lonely and clearly loneliness is going to be the key theme of this story, and may even be relevant to the motive for murder - assuming that Melissa was murdered, as I do, of course. I really enjoyed the understated way Threlfall tackled the part of Len, a man with whom one can readily empathise. I'll definitely be watching this one next week.